AUTHOR’S NOTES: I had a lot to report and do apologize if the order in which I wrote was a little out of sync. Unfortunately, I have to leave town and had little time to write my column. However, I believe I have the basics. In addition, I was not sure about the names: Komaroff, Vadeek, or Tomasaki, so I did the best I could with what I heard.

ALIAS – SYDNEY
Episode 1, 2
“This is your assignment.”

Congratulations to JJ Abrams and his staff. What a terrific show. So much went on during the two hours, that it was a bit hard to keep up with everything. Therefore, what I want to do in this very first review of the new season is give an over all view and discuss all of the ramifications.

I know some of you might object when I tell you that if I had to pick a bad guy, it would be JACK, but until we know more, if he killed Sydney’s Mom…it’s him. The bad girl is, even if we don’t see her, Irina Derevko. If she put out a contract on Sydney, she gets the title.

Now let’s talk plot and show. Naturally, we had the requisite repeat of the end of last season, but it didn’t come right away, which was good planning. The show opens with Sydney in a blond short wig (different) and a negligee set. She was out to capture the attention of a Russian scientist, Yuri Komaroff, who stole an isotope worth millions. He tells her it can be used for good or evil. Obviously, we know he is going to sell it to the highest bidder, one Vadeek.

Sydney escapes with the isotope after breaking the scientist’s neck (I think, but probably not). She is chased through the train into the baggage car where a royal battle ensues. She is hanging off the train roaring high over a canyon. If she falls, it’s a long way down. The bad guy is cutting the straps she’s hanging from, one after another and is about to start on the last one, when we cut away to another scene 72 hours previously.

Now Sydney’s in a dark wig running down a street in Shanghai , following another agent. They are being chased by three men. She and the agent duck into a nightclub. There they manage to escape, but the complication is that the agent they were supposed to meet is compromised and killed.

In the next scene, Sydney is being reamed up one side and down the other by her new boss, Director Baker (?). Sydney is being transferred back to Langley into the mailroom, which means she won’t be field rated anymore. Furious because the Director won’t listen, she quits. At the same time, Vaughn is punching a bag repeatedly. Weiss and he have a conversation and we learn Vaughn has quit the CIA, especially after undergoing (one or six months of) psyche evaluation for killing his wife and subsequently burning down his house.

Now I’m not sure, where we are, but she enters a subway tunnel (which I think is supposed to be L.A. cause that’s where her home is), takes out a key card, runs it through a slot and a door opens. Inside is a sign that says, “Authorized Personnel Only” and Sydney throws three switches that opens a door leading down a tunnel. Ahead, she sees Director Baker waiting for her.

A ha, new Sydney, new organization, and a new boss. Yipes, it’s Sloane! What is going on with the CIA, she’s thinking. It seems Sloane is putting together a black ops operation, which will answer only to the director. Members of the team are Jack (oh oh), Dixon (I wasn’t cut out to be a Director), Vaughn (I quit) and Sydney. Sydney isn’t happy about this, especially seeing her father and Sloane. (Oh that damned Prophecy that foretold Jack would be working with Sloane again.) Sloane tells her that he and Nadia found the Rambaldi artifact and he turned it over to the government, which paved the way for him to be in charge of the APO…just like SD-6!

In spite of Sydney’s objections, her new director tells her “This is your assignment.” The group gathers to hear that they are going after the missing isotope, which they believe is being bought by a man called Vadeek (sp), who is an international terrorist.

Next, we see Sydney back on the train where she meets Komaroff minutes before the opening scene. She is fully dressed as only she can be on assignment. Vaughn’s assignment is to play Komaroff and meet the buyer who is Tomasaki, Vadeek’s second in command, in the dining car.

We see Sydney in a repeat of taking the isotope, but we also see Vaughn’s meeting. However, it doesn’t go as well as everyone hoped because Tomasaki recognizes Vaughn from somewhere. Tomasaki has his henchmen take over. Vaughn is somewhat manhandled by a bodyguard that out-weighs him by at least a hundred pounds. Fortunately, Vaughn escapes leaving the big man out and in the hands of an agent. He races down the train into the baggage car just in time to stop the from cutting the final strap. He throws him off the train and pulls Sydney into his arms, meaning we see them in a sexual embrace, which does take place in her bed back home. When they are finished, Sydney looks as though she maybe didn’t make the right choice for the moment.

Sloane wants his daughter, Nadia, to join the group, but also admits she won’t do it. He says he sees in her the need to do good, but she won’t. Sydney goes to Argentina and talks to her sister, who still won’t join them. However, she does tell Sydney that Tomasaki killed her best friend and cut off his head, mailing it to the Argentine Intelligence Service. She also tells Syd that Tomasaki believes himself to be a modern samurai. He spent years in prison because he failed in his attempt to rob a Britsh museum of the Shintori sword.

When Syd returns, Jack wants to know if she told Nadia. Vaughn enters the apartment with a bag of groceries. Sydney has just told Jack she did not tell Nadia anything. It’s awkward and Jack leaves.

Now we learn what happened in Wittenberg, showing the scene where Sydney is reading the file. We hear her voice tell Vaughn that in the file was the evidence that her mother was a KGB agent. Also was the information that Jack asked for permission and got it from the CIA to kill her mother.

"He killed my mother, he killed my mother." That was a scene that brought tears to my eyes. (Sniff, sniff)

In the next act, it is decided they need someone to run the operation. They are going to steal the Samurai sword located in the British museum. Marshall Flinkman is now recruited to the team (Yeah). It’s really a funny scene when he’s brought to APO with a bag over his head and the first person he sees is Sydney, and then he spots Sloane, shouting, “Sloane is here.”

The next harrowing scene is Sydney going after the sword. She cannot touch the floor or all kinds of sirens will go off. We watch one of those great robberies and then the excitement as sirens do go off when a mistake is made. She, however, has the sword. She is almost caught, when her father drives up, making her get into the car. The last we hear is Jack saying to her, “simple thank you…get down!”

Back in Los Angeles Jack and Sloane are talking and Sloane wants to know if Sydney knows the truth. Jack tells him he hasn’t told her because it would incapacitate her. They go to see Tomasaki’s bodyguard who was captured on the train and the bodyguard tells them that Tomasaki is Vadeek. The APO team tells a slimy art dealer that they have the Shintaro Sword that was stolen from the British Museum. Tomasaki sets up a meet and wants the woman who stole the sword to bring it to him in Argentina.

It’s a trap and Sydney is taken, leaving Jack and Vaughn in a quandary. They don’t know what exactly will happen, but Vaughn gets Nadia’s attention when he tells her Sydney is now in Tomasaki’s hands. The bad guy tries to drown Sydney with water forced into a mask put over her head. He tells Sydney that he was given a contract to kill her. He won’t tell her by whom. Twice she withstands the attempt and tells him she doesn’t know what he is talking about. Finally, he puts the mask over her again, leaving her to drown.

However, Nadia is outside making contact with one of Tomasaki’s men. She kills him and takes the key card that opens the door into the hideout. She gets to Sydney in time and removes the mask. Sydney runs after Tomasaki who is only a minute ahead of her. He enters the meat packing plant, which was a front for his hideout. Sydney follows with the intent of getting the sword and killing him. There is a battle in the plant and Sydney finally runs him through with the Shin taro sword. As he is dying, he tells her that Irina Derevko paid him to kill Sydney.

God what a shock to the system…Sydney’s as well as everyone who was watching. Back at APO headquarters, Sydney confronts her father who tells her finally he killed Irina to save her. “You killed Mom, to save me?” How’s that for a kick in the pants? Then the all-important question, “WHY?” “I don’t know,” cries Jack.

She’s walking out the tunnel, almost crying. Vaughn catches up with her and tenderly holds her.

Weiss is with Sydney in her apartment commiserating over the fact that Sydney has taken a job with a bank as a loan officer. (Yeee-gads that sounded familiar…ha ha). There is a knock at the door and Nadia stands there. Surprisingly Weiss doesn’t want to leave, but he sees that the two women want to talk.

Sydney wants to know why she is there and Nadia says, “I thought you could tell me about our mother.”

“Do you have your passport?”

Next thing they are in Moscow where Sydney tells Nadia their mother was killed and that she identified the body, had it cremated and put into urn. She takes her to the spot that supposedly (according to Sydney) is only three blocks from where Irina was born and lived.

Nadia stares at the site and promises she will find and kill the man who killed her mother.

REMARKS…
On a personal note: I love Sydney’s new hairdo. It gives you a sense that she has now ‘grown up’ and more assured and matured. She looked so beautiful and so buff.

I like what they did with Vaughn. The new hair styling did something great…it matured him. After all he is in his middle thirties (show’s timeline) and not a boy. I thought the spiky hairdo last couple of seasons did not enhance his personality.

Then the set for the APO group was done in white, a nice touch since it would be the black ops division of the CIA. Sydney has a new call sign: Phoenix (love it) and Vaughn’s is Shotgun (loved that one too).

That was a lot of action with many questions answered and then not answered.

First, nothing is as it seems on Alias. I want all of you to remember that. JJ has proven repeatedly we cannot assume anything or even believe anything any one tells us.

I noticed someone thought they had put Rambaldi to rest. Sorry, fans, not true. He’s out there in the persons of Sydney and Nadia, both children of the Rambaldi prophecies. Maybe some of you are tired of seeing and hearing about him, but not I…I want to know the final kicker and it will either come this season or maybe the next.

Irina Derevko is still a key player, dead or not. (I prefer the latter as do thousands of others.)

DISCUSS

So when did Jack kill Irina? After “Crossings” when Katya kissed him once for Irina and once … for herself? There was not much time there for him to locate Irina who supposedly was in hiding.

Did he lie to Sydney when he said he had contacted Irina when he needed help to find Sydney (S3)? What about the computer email interaction? Was she alive or dead?

I find the word ‘responsible’ not the same as “I killed her.” What do you think?

Sydney finds this file and finds the information about her mother and her execution at the hands of her father. If the killing took place some time after Crossings, when did Jack leave to do the deed.

Will Nadia pursue the killer of the mother she never knew?

Will Sydney try to throw roadblocks in her sister’s way? Sydney needs more information to handle better the entire situation. Will she talk to her father? Will he tell her when and where?

I’m sorry, but if I thought my father killed my mother because she had a contract out on me, I would really want to know why? Did Irina tell him before he killed her? I would think that the chemistry between the two would demand it of him.

What happened to his telling Vaughn (S3) that he had the chance to kill Irina, but didn’t do it and regretted it? Was he lying?

Did Jack kill Irina? Really?

Sorry again … something’s rotten in the State of Denmark… even if Lena Olin did not come back on the show…there are still too many loose ends here…as usual.

Would love to hear what you think about the questions above. Think about them at least.

I am reading this column and the one folowing it and when I have some energy - I promise to come back and answer my ideas and debate with you


Brenda

sorry for replying so late, been rather busy lately.
anyhow I really missed these columns, great to see them again!

I agree, i'm kinda missing the whole rambaldi thing.

including me, she's probably just in hiding.

DISCUSS

good question, the whole timelime is kinda blurry concernng Irina's "death"

no, I think she was still alive for the email messages, I mean who else would reply to Jack's words, and how would katya just appear at Syd's doorstep if someone didn't tell her to go there and help Jack.

very true, I mean we never actually saw her dead body. sure they mentioned something about Syd identifying the body and burying it, but they could surely pull a body switch, as we learned in season three when syd "died"

answer unkown, as I said before I find the whole timelime a little sloppy.

o fcourse she will.

I don't think Jack's really going to give us any thruthfull answers anytime soon.

I agree, again Syd asked Jack the same question but he said something about not knowing the answer to why Irina wouls want to kill her.

I thought that he was speaking of a couple of years ago, that just after she "died" he found her and just couldn't kill her.

I for one, refuse to believe that he killed her.

thanks for the pm.

Hey

This is Alias and everything is always blurry if in the past. The only truths we know are what is happening in the here and now...this minute. :lol: :lol: :lol: